The speaker first of all characterized the composition of the III Duma. The Government, by simple empirical means, so tailored the electoral law of June 3rd that the Duma contained two possible majorities: an Octobrist-Black Hundreds majority and an Octobrist-Cadet majority. Both are unconditionally counter-revolutionary. The Government in its reactionary policy will rely now on one, now on the other. In doing so, the Government will cloak its autocratic and serf-like actions in phrases about paper "reforms." Meanwhile, the Cadets, in reality pursuing a treacherous counter-revolutionary policy, will present themselves in words as the party of genuinely democratic opposition.

A deal between the Cadets and Octobrists in the Duma is inevitable, and the first steps toward it — as the speaker demonstrates through a series of quotations from the party newspapers of the Cadets and Octobrists, through facts from the lives of these parties and reports from the latest congress of the Cadet party — have already been taken. The Cadet policy of dealing with the old regime in the III Duma will become even more starkly apparent than hitherto, and concerning its true character there will remain no doubt for anyone.

But neither of these two Duma majorities is objectively capable of satisfying the urgent economic and political demands of the broader masses of the proletariat, peasantry, and urban democracy. The exponent of the needs of these strata of the people will be, as hitherto, above all Social Democracy. The composition and activity of the III Duma promise to furnish Social Democracy with abundant and excellent agitational material, which must be directed against the Black Hundreds government, the obvious serf-owning landlords, the Octobrists, and against the Cadets. The task of the S.-D. remains as before the popularization among the broadest masses of the people of the idea of an all-national Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, etc., suffrage. There can be no question whatsoever of supporting the "Left" Octobrists or Cadets in the Duma. The S.-D., however few in number they may be in the III Duma, must pursue an independent socialist and consistently democratic line, making use of the Duma tribune, the right of interpellations, etc. Certain agreements are permissible only with the group of left deputies (especially in view of the necessity of 30 signatures for submitting an interpellation), but only such agreements as do not run counter to the program and tactics of the S.-D. For this purpose it is necessary to organize an information bureau that binds no one, but merely gives the S.-D. the possibility of influencing the left deputies.

From the ranks of the S.-D. — the speaker further remarked — voices are already being heard in favor of supporting the "Left" Octobrists (for instance, at the election of the Presidium), of organizing an information bureau with the Cadets, and of the so-called "preservation" of our Duma fraction. The talk about supporting the Octobrists, coming from the Mensheviks, shows more clearly than anything the complete failure of Menshevik tactics. When the Duma was Cadet-dominated, the Mensheviks cried out about supporting the Cadets. The moment Stolypin changed the electoral law in a direction favorable to the Octobrists, the Mensheviks were ready to support the Octobrists. Where will the Mensheviks finally end up on this path?

The speaker considers an information bureau with the Cadets impermissible, because this would mean informing avowed enemies.

Regarding the "preservation" of the fraction, the speaker said: the fraction should indeed be preserved. But for what purpose? Only so that it holds high the banner of the S.-D. in the Duma, only so that it conducts implacable struggle in the Duma against counter-revolutionaries of all kinds and shades, beginning with the allies and ending with the Cadets. But in no case for the purpose of supporting the "Left" Octobrists and Cadets. If its existence were conditioned by the necessity of supporting these groups, that is, of supporting a deal with Stolypin's autocracy, then it would be better for it to honorably cease its existence altogether, having made clear to the entire people why it was expelled from the Duma, should such expulsion occur.

In his concluding remarks Lenin focused mainly on the fundamental error of Menshevism — the idea of a "national-wide opposition." The Russian bourgeoisie in the proper sense of the word has never been revolutionary, and this for a perfectly understandable reason: by virtue of the position occupied by the working class in Russia and by virtue of its role in the revolution. Having examined all the other arguments of the Mensheviks, he proposed a resolution, printed in No. 19 of *Proletarii*.

*Proletarii* No. 20, November 19, 1907

Printed from the text of the newspaper *Proletarii*